After losing her doubles match to put Syracuse down a point at the onset of the Orange’s win against Liberty on Saturday, Valeria Salazar traded the racket in her hands for two bags of ice on her legs.

The junior, a No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles player, was given a respite from singles competition by head coach Younes Limam, in lieu of Sunday’s matchup against Cornell. Salazar’s absence prompted Limam to move two freshmen into the top three of the singles lineup — Gabriela Knutson and Maria Tritou — and follow them with freshmen Libi Mesh and Dina Hegab.

Each freshman responded with decisive two-set wins, scoring four of the Orange’s points in the 6-1 victory. Syracuse’s (2-0) freshmen helped propel the Orange past Liberty (1-3).

“They are very mature,” Limam said. “I don’t usually call them freshmen… They played at a high level before coming in to SU in their juniors.”

Knutson found out that she would fill in at the number two spot in the lineup five minutes before her match began. Unruffled by the sudden change, she was just excited to be on the front court, “for a change.” She took a 6-3, 6-3 win with what she felt wasn’t even her best tennis.

On serve, up 4-1, Knutson slammed her racket on the court after following a double fault with an unforced error.

“I was hitting a lot of shots into the net, and that made me really mad,” Knutson said. “… But I knew I was better than her, I was confident in my game.”

The freshman closed the game on the next point with an ace that nearly sent her opponent stumbling onto the court.

The lone “freshman moment,” as assistant coach Shelley George phrased it, came during the second set of Tritou’s 6-1, 6-4 win. The native of Greece was broken for serve twice as she saw her 5-1 lead dwindle to 5-4, falling within a point of a tiebreak.

Confidence grew for Tritou as she chipped away at the 0-40 hole she found herself in, eventually pushing her opponent, Liberty freshman Anna Dollar, to serve from the deuce court, down and on match point.

The two went back in forth for more than five shots before Dollar sent the final ball into the net, letting out a piercing shriek that echoed throughout Drumlins Country Club.

“I don’t really believe in being a freshman or a senior,” concluded Limam after the meet, “I think if you’re good enough, it doesn’t really matter.”

Published on January 30, 2016 at 6:04 pm

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